A Tall Glass of Orange Juice
by WanderingPirate
Summary: A conversation over breakfast. A fluffy oneshot. LupinTonks.


(A/N- This is just a short little one-shot inspired by the scene at the end of the Half-Blood Prince where Lupin and Tonks are holding hands and by my own deep, and I'm often told odd, love of orange juice.)

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Not even a little.

**A Tall Glass of Orange Juice**

The sweet sunlight filtered into the room through the partially closed blinds, slowly filling the room with its golden glow. Remus Lupin sighed and rolled over in the midst of his half-sleep. In truth, he hadn't really been asleep for a while now, but he wasn't quite ready to face the day yet, and it felt so good to lie here in this comfortable bed next to his beautiful girlfriend who was… wait, where was she?

Remus sat up suddenly as if he had been given an electric shock. Glancing around the very empty room, he sighed as he felt his stomach clench. Of course, it had all been a dream. Why in the world would someone as wonderful as Nymphadora Tonks ever waste their time with someone like him? Speaking of time, Remus glanced at the clock to see if he was late, and received yet another shock. Next to the clock was a framed, moving picture of Remus and a young pink haired witch, laughing and hugging. He smiled as he remembered the moment that picture was taken, right after Remus had asked her to move in with him.

Getting up from the bed, Remus went to look for Tonks, all the while deciding that he wouldn't tell her what he had thought when he woke up that morning alone. With a fleeting look around the living room, he noticed that she wasn't there. A more perceptive observer would have noticed the more than slight change that had come over his apartment in the last month. There were now moving photographs all along the surfaces of the room, of the days he and Tonks had spent together. It was also (though Remus would never mention this to Tonks) a good deal messier than it had been before she moved in. He didn't have to search far for his beloved Metamorphmagus, before the sound of a pan dropping and a loud, "Ouch!" alerted him to the fact that she must be in the kitchen.

Opening the kitchen door, Remus was immediately hit with the smell of something burning.

"Oh! Remus!" cried Tonks. "I didn't mean to wake you up!"

"You didn't," he replied, smiling at her disheveled appearance. She had evidently tried to make him breakfast, a very sweet gesture gone wrong by Tonks' innate clumsiness.

"Well," she said in a very small voice as the kitchen stove caught fire. "Breakfast is ready."

Remus laughed and, putting out the fire with his wand, said, "How about some cereal?"

"That sounds good," said Tonks, relieved that Remus wasn't mad that she had almost burnt down his apartment. She dumped the charred remains of what might have been eggs and toast into the trash can and joined Remus at the very small wooden table in the center of the room.

"May I ask why you were trying so valiantly to set my kitchen on fire?" asked Remus with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not my fault! Your kitchen's just too flammable!" she said defensively.

"Well, you had better get used to it, because it's your kitchen now, too, remember?" he said. Of course, they had shared the apartment for some while now, but they both still had the tendency to refer to it as his.

"How could I forget?" she asked, a bright happiness unexpectedly filling her face. "I think that was the happiest I've ever felt when you asked me to move in with you."

Remus said nothing, but with a series of waves from his wand, started making coffee. It was the happiest he'd ever felt, too, he just didn't know how to tell her. Fortunately, Tonks seemed to understand this, and didn't appear to take offense to his silence.

After a minute or so, Remus began drinking his coffee as Tonks poured cereal for the both of them, with much spilling of milk in the process.

"You really shouldn't drink that, you know," said Tonks all of a sudden.

"What do you mean?" asked a startled Remus.

"All that caffeine!" She exclaimed, her nose wrinkled in disgust. "It's terrible for you!"

" 'All that caffeine' is what keeps me going throughout the day, I'd never be able to stay awake without it," he said simply.

"Try going without it for one day, and you'll see that you don't need it," she said without a doubt.

"What do you suggest I drink instead?" he asked curiously.

"Water," she said bluntly.

"I like my water with coffee beans," he said. Tonks, however, was not amused.

"Why not drink orange juice in the morning?" she asked.

"What in the name of Merlin would orange juice do?" he asked.

"What would orange juice do?" she repeated, obviously scandalized. "You obviously have never had good orange juice."

"Tonks, what are you talking about?" he asked.

"Only the greatest drink in the world!" she exclaimed. "Have you ever had orange juice first thing in the morning? That's something that will wake you up! The taste of orange juice just makes you all bright and cheery. It's impossible to be grumpy if you've had orange juice in the morning!"

Remus regarded this outburst with a stunned silence. "I… didn't know that you were such an…orange juice fanatic…" he said.

"Of course, how can you not love orange juice?" she asked brightly.

"Actually, I've never really felt any strong connection with orange juice…" he said, wondering at this new found revelation.

"Really?" she said curiously. "Then you haven't been drinking it properly."

"There's a proper way to drink orange juice?" he said slowly.

"There most certainly is!" she said excitedly.

"How, exactly, would that be?"

"You really have to enjoy the orange juice, with its sweet yet tangy taste and its bright color and its refreshing scent and the texture of the pulp…" she trailed off. "It's like… like…"

"Drinking sunshine?" supplied Remus, now utterly bewildered that anyone could talk like that about any kind of drink.

"Yes! It's like drinking sunshine! Try it!" she insisted.

"Ok…" Remus agreed, reluctantly setting aside his faithful mug that held his steaming black coffee and reaching for the orange juice Tonks was handing him.

Eating his cereal and sipping his orange juice, (with Tonks watching closely as if to make sure he was enjoying it properly), Remus reflected on how much Tonks had changed his life. She certainly had made him look at everything very differently than he usually did. She had a way of seeing the extraordinary things in the most mundane parts of life. _And,_ he thought, _I certainly never remember orange juice tasting this good._

(A/N- Thanks for reading!)


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